PRESERVING THE MEMORY — As the community has done for 56 years, we remembered the Holocaust at the Jewish Community Campus Sunday afternoon. The photo at rigtht doesn’t nearly depict the emotion of the event, attended by approximately 550 people and only a handful of survivors. It marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the 72nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the 42nd anniversary since the Memorial to the Six Million, now located on the grounds of the Jewish Community Campus, was dedicated.
Several musicians — including the event’s chair, Jewish Heritage Foundation director and pianist Ellen Kort — blessed us with beautiful music. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}Several speakers inspired us, including these remarks from David Rudman, board chair of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee, on behalf of all the sponsoring organizations:
“Global and local, these anniversaries remind us of the profound impact that the Holocaust has had, and continues to have, on all of our lives and of the importance of education and outreach: teaching the history of the Holocaust and applying its lessons to counter indifference, intolerance and genocide and to help ensure that our collective future will be marked by understanding and mutual respect. As it is said, we must never forget the past or we are doomed to repeat it.
“You don’t need me to tell you that there is still work to be done. Anti-Semitism is all too present today at home and abroad. This year, Jews were slaughtered visiting a museum in Brussels, shopping for Shabbat in Paris, praying and commuting in Jerusalem. And in our own community, it has only just been a year since the senseless acts of violence on our Jewish Community Campus and at Village Shalom. But because you are here today, you are an agent of healing. Bearing witness to the dead is the most meaningful tribute we can offer, because those who commit genocide seek not only to kill but to erase from memory.
As Elie Wiesel said, ‘To forget the dead would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.’ As the number of Holocaust survivors sadly declines, the duty of remembrance falls on our generation and on future generations not yet born On Yom HaShoah, we cannot bring the dead back to life, but we can bring their memory back to life and ensure they are not forgotten.”
MU AEPI ORGANIZES ROCK-A-THON — There are dance-a-thons, races and relays that raise money for the fight against cancer across the country. And since 1969, every two years, there’s been one university student in Columbia, Missouri, sitting in a rocking chair on a stage in downtown Columbia for 63 hours. He doesn’t move to eat or sleep, all in the name of fighting cancer. He’s the Alpha Epsilon Pi rocker and the symbol of Rock-A-Thon, the philanthropy of the men of the Mu Deuteron chapter at the University of Missouri.
This year’s rocker is Jason Hoffman, a senior broadcast journalism student. All proceeds of this unique philanthropy go to the American Cancer Society for the purpose of cancer research. This year, Rock-A-Thon is highlighting skin cancer research and the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma, in particular. Despite being one of the easiest cancers to detect and prevent, melanoma rates have been steadily rising over the past 40 years. More than 50,000 people will be diagnosed in the United States in 2015 alone.
In 2013, Rock-A-Thon raised $123,000 for lung cancer research, setting a record as the largest single-chapter fraternity and sorority philanthropy in North America. Records are made to be broken and with the aid of their partners, Central Missouri Dermatology, Mohs Skin Cancer Surgery and the central Missouri chapter of the American Cancer Society, AEPi hopes to do so in 2015.
Visit www.aepirockathon.com to learn more or make a donation.
HOLOCAUST MEMORIES SOUGHT — Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg is working on a new book regarding the children and successive generations of Holocaust survivors. He is particularly interested in individuals from this area as he was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Send any material you think might be valuable in his book to . He is especially looking for materials such as poems, art work and essays. He is interested in learning about these generations’ belief in G-d, philosophy regarding the Shoah, Yiddish expressions they know and use, language spoken as a child, characteristics learned from the survivors themselves, did the survivors speak about the Shoah, what profession were the survivors and what profession the next generations entered.
EVENT RESCHEDULED — Adverse weather conditions resulted in the rescheduling of the Waves that Save picnic. The new date is June 7, National Cancer Survivors Day. Waves that Save has partnered with The National Survivors Day Foundation to host the rescheduled picnic. For more information www.wavesthatsave.org.{/mprestriction}
